Rockford District Court employees testify that doodles in question in Judge Servaas hearing were not offensive

GRAND RAPIDS -- A series of court clerks and office staff with Rockford's district court defended Judge Steven Servaas in court today, testifying they were never offended by two doodles of an alleged sexual nature found in court files.

The clerks also said they never saw Servaas with an exposed jock strap at a December Christmas party as alleged by a witness for the Judicial Tenure Commission, which is seeking to discipline or remove Servaas from the bench.

Testimony today focused on whether the clerks had seen either of two doodles -- one of alleged breasts and the other of alleged male genitalia -- that lawyers for the the Tenure Commission claim were drawn by Servaas.

Many of the clerks testified they had seen a doodle on a sticky note attached to a file, but no one saw Servaas draw it and never asked him about it.

Servaas's attorney, James Brady, suggested that numerous attorneys, visitors and clerks have access to the same files as Servaas and could have made the doodles.

Joyce Musk said she was among several clerks and office staff members that saw the alleged penis doodle when Clerk Carrie Flowers brought a file out of the courtroom.

"Carrie came through the door giggling," she said. "We just started laughing about it. It was just a drawing and I don't even know if it was a penis. We labeled it as that."

She was not offended by the doodle and said Dona Gillson, who earlier testified she was "appalled" by the doodle, was laughing with everyone else at the time and did not appear angry or upset.

Servaas's courtroom recorder testified she saw the alleged breast doodle on a paper in a court file, about the same time a woman came into court inappropriately dressed in a halter top. She was not offended by it, though, and described it has hardly recognizable as breasts.

Several clerks contradicted earlier tesimony that Servaas was exposed at a Christmas party, which he came to in shorts after playing racquetball.

"He was just a man enjoying a Christmas party. I did not see anything that was offensive," said Jean Lima, a probation officer.

Timber Carroll, a clerk, acknowledged she was concerned Servaas might accidentally expose himself while he was sitting in a chair and asked another person to ask him to close his legs. But she never saw anything exposed.

Still others testified that clerk Rebecca Andrus, who complained about the incident, could not have seen the judge's legs from her vantage point behind a partition.

"Unless she has x-ray vision, there is no way she could have seen the judge," Lima said.

Testimony was to continue this afternoon with Rockford District Court Magistrate Varis Klavins.